Ardmore's Holiday Season Runs Through One Block of Cricket Avenue

Where does downtown Ardmore's holiday season happen this year? Nearly every dated event, plus the newest restaurant, sits on the same short stretch of Cricket Avenue, between Schauffele Plaza and the Lancaster Avenue corner.

The Ardmore Business Association's tree lighting is on the plaza. The Ardmore Holiday Market is at the corner of Cricket and Lancaster. The Italian-style wine bar that opened in October is at 24 Cricket Ave. If you're planning around the two big dates from late November into early December, you can treat that one block as home base.

Two Dates on the Same Block

Here are the two downtown events with dates, in order:

1. Friday, November 27, 6 p.m.: ABA Holiday Tree Lighting at Schauffele Plaza. The Ardmore Business Association's event listing on Patch says Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive on a firetruck, Santa lights the tree, and hot chocolate and cookies are free. Patch lists the address as Schauffele Plaza, Cricket Ave.
2. Saturday, December 5, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Ardmore Holiday Market at Cricket and Lancaster Avenues. The Downtown Ardmore District says Art Star Bazaar curates the market, with more than 20 local craft vendors and live music.

The tree lighting falls the day after Thanksgiving, so it's the first downtown event of the holiday season. The market comes eight days later. That means the two biggest public holiday gatherings downtown are about a block apart and just over a week apart.

A New Table on the Same Block

Since mid-October, those dates have had a dining option right on the block. Patch reported on October 14 that Vintner's Table, an Italian-style wine bar and restaurant, had opened in Ardmore. It's the third location, after Phoenixville and Wyomissing. Every glass it pours is made at the owners' winery, Folino Estate in Kutztown.

The Lower Merion Times reported that owners Andrea and Marco Folino first aimed to open in early August, missed that, and then targeted October for 24 Cricket Ave. So they made it in time for the holidays with about six weeks to spare. The Vintner's Table Ardmore page lists hours and takes reservations. On tree-lighting night and market Saturday, a reservation is probably the safer move than walking in.

The wine bar is part of a bigger wave of openings. Alec Hersh, executive director of the Downtown Ardmore District, told Main Line Media News that 10 businesses had opened in the district in 2026 as of July 20. That was close to the 11 that opened in all of 2025, with five months of 2026 still to go.

Music Hall Nights Around the Two Dates

Ardmore Music Hall has shows booked around both holiday dates. That makes it easy to turn a free afternoon or early-evening event into a full night out.

On November 27, you could watch the tree lighting at 6 p.m., have dinner nearby, and then see a Huffamoose show the same night. On December 5, the market runs until 4 p.m., and that same date is the last of Daniel Donato's three nights at the Music Hall.

Earlier in the month, the calendar also includes the Daniel Lanois Trio on November 10, Joy Oladokun on November 12, Paula Cole on November 20 and Tommy Conwell & The Young Rumblers on November 21. John Scofield's Electrospective show on November 13 shows as sold out with a waitlist. His second date, November 15, still showed tickets on sale.

The Plaza Under the Tree Has a Redesign Pending

The tree goes up on a plaza that Lower Merion Township plans to rebuild. According to the township's Schauffele Plaza project page, the project team brought two final designs to the Building & Planning Committee on March 11, 2026, and no action was scheduled at that meeting. The project page itself still describes that meeting as the next step and gives no construction start date.

Parking is the biggest difference between the two plans. The plaza sits next to Township Lot 6, a 72-space public lot and one of 11 public lots in the Ardmore commercial district.

• Option A would be built in five phases and would cut downtown parking by 56 spaces.
• Option B would be built in three phases, keep 18 spaces in the lot, and cut downtown parking by 38 spaces.

For scale, the township's 2025 Downtown Ardmore Parking Management Plan counts 968 public parking spaces downtown and expects 195 more to be added in 2026 and 2027. Measured against that total, either option is a small change. On the specific block where the tree lighting and holiday crowds gather, it would be a big one. The plaza work goes back to the 2023 Ardmore Master Plan, which made reimagining Schauffele Plaza and Lot 6 as a flexible open public space one of its main goals. In August 2025, Main Line Media News reported that commissioners had approved applying for a $1 million state grant for the project. At the time, final plans were not yet in place.

The tree lighting is listed for Schauffele Plaza this year. Once a design is chosen and funded, the same corner could look quite different for future holiday events, and probably with less parking right beside it.

A Different Name Behind the Market

If the group that publishes the downtown calendar looks unfamiliar, that's because it changed its name. The Ardmore Initiative now goes by the Downtown Ardmore District. Hersh told Main Line Media News that people kept asking what the "Ardmore Initiative" actually did. The new name is meant to make clear which area the group covers and who it serves.

The same report described programs the District has started. These include the A-Team, a clean-and-green crew that also works as downtown ambassadors, 24 new benches at bus stops, and planned walking wayfinding kiosks with maps and local history. The District organizes the December 5 Holiday Market. The tree lighting is run separately by the Ardmore Business Association, whose listing calls it "The Original Voice of Ardmore's Small Businesses." Two different groups run the two events, on the same block.

Openings Around the Block

The Cricket Avenue block is the center of the season, but other recent and upcoming openings around downtown are worth knowing about:

• Half A While, a dessert cafe at 22 W. Lancaster Ave., opened over the summer with a soft-opening period, the Inquirer reported.
• Mango Mango held its grand opening July 31 at 38 Greenfield Ave., according to the same Inquirer report.
• Calm & Strong Pilates and Yoga at 46 Rittenhouse Place says on its website that it plans to open in December 2026 and that the space is under construction now.
• Pure Green, a cold-press juice bar, has an Ardmore page listing 56 E. Lancaster Ave. Its hours are still marked "Coming Soon." The Lower Merion Times reported it will be the brand's first location in Philadelphia's western suburbs.
• VEG ER for Pets at 167 W. Lancaster Ave. and Solis Mammography at 171 W. Lancaster Ave. are also on the way, with no opening dates announced, per the Lower Merion Times.

Farther out, the $187 million Piazza at Ardmore at 100 W. Lancaster Ave. broke ground in May. It's expected to add 270 apartments and 30,000 square feet of retail by February 2028.

Plans for the Schauffele Plaza block could shape both everyday downtown life and what nearby homes are worth in the years ahead. If you'd like to talk about what changes like that could mean for your home, Ainlay Dixon follows them closely. Get your instant home valuation, and let's talk about where your Ardmore home stands this season.